1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sport gloves and more specifically to an improved sport glove that is especially advantageous for use by golfers.
2. Prior Art
Although the present invention is useable by race-car drivers, baseball players, racketball players, and other sports participants, it is particularly designed for the golfer who needs a soft, flexible glove to feel the club, a glove easy to put on and take off repeatedly and a glove which protects the golfer's hand. The glove of the present invention is particularly advantageous when used by golfers on the hand which grips the club highest on the shaft for gripping the club handle while minimizing the possibilities for slippage such as might occur as a result of perspiration on the hand and while also avoiding injury to the hand such as blistering and the like from repeated usage.
One significant problem of prior art gloves that is particularly important to golfers is the tendency for such gloves to permit the glove material in the palm area to move, ride or lift up and thereby interfere with the grasp of the golf club handle. Prior art golf glove designers have recognized that the solution to this particular problem can be provided in a golf glove that provides the wearer with a taut fit. However, such a taut fit must also be configured to accommodate repeated removal and reinsertion of the hand from the glove to accommodate most golfer's predelection for not wearing the glove continuously from the beginning of play to the end of play.
Accordingly, a suitable golf glove which provides a taut fit must also provide means for allowing the hand to enter and fit easily into the glove with a minimum of inconvenience to the user in resecuring the glove to the hand. In this regard a large number of patents have issued disclosing gloves that are intended to provide the aforementioned desirable characteristics ot taut fit and convenience of hand insertion and fastening.
By way of example, U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE 31,538 which issued on Mar. 20, 1984 and was based on prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,917 issued on June 29, 1971, listed 84 prior art patents relevant to the golf glove specifically disclosed in the reissue patent. Unfortunately, all such prior art attempts including the golf club disclosed in the aforementioned reissue patent, failed to provide a golf glove which optimally combines the requirement for a taut fit with convenience of easy hand insertion and simple attachment.
By way of example, the golf glove disclosed in aforementioned U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE 31,538 discloses the use of elastic sewn into the knuckle area of glove with the elastic directed substantially perpendicular to the user's arm and lying adjacent to and in front of a relatively complex fastening device which detracts from the convenience of use and attachment. Furthermore, the provision of relatively straight elastic material on only the knuckle-side of the glove still does not satisfactorily solve the requirement for a taut fit, particularly in the palm area of the glove where there remains a likelehood of the glove material moving, riding or lifting up to interfere with the use of the glove and detract from satisfying the principal functional objective of the glove.